A dog’s eye view of the launch of an Atlas 5 carrying NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) into geosynchronous orbit at 10:23 a.m. on 11 February 2010 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SDO’s instruments will be able to track events inside the Sun, on its surface, and in its atmosphere simultaneously to gain a better understanding of how the Sun works. Thank you to Takako for providing off-site launch coverage.